City seeks plan to ensure Jackson gets credit in airport name

The Atlanta City Council approved a resolution March 2 designed to ensure that former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson gets his proper recognition when people talk about Atlanta’s airport and that the full legal name, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, is used.

Felicia Moore

The resolution, sponsored by Dist. 9 Councilwoman Felicia Moore, requests the city’s aviation general manager to monitor and notify necessary people to determine reasons why the “Jackson” part of the name is often omitted, not used, or overlooked.

Former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson

Moore, who is chair of the Transportation Committee and represents a small portion of west Buckhead, calls on the airport’s general manager to develop a plan of action to address and correct the oversight and present the plan at the June 10 meeting of the council’s Transportation Committee.

The resolution was approved by a vote of 14-0.

The airport is owned and operated by the City of Atlanta; and on August 20, 2004, the city officially changed the name of the airport to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in honor of former Mayor Maynard Jackson, who died on June 23, 2003.

As mayor, Jackson oversaw the rebuilding of the then-William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport’s huge terminal to modern standards “on time and under budget.”

Moore said over time, there has been a tendency by the media and others to drop the “Jackson” portion of the airport’s official name. This situation was recently brought to the attention of the Atlanta City Council.

“It is our hope that Mayor Jackson’s esteemed service to Atlanta will be remembered for generations to come,” Moore said. “He was a man who gave much to his beloved city and asked for little in return. It is only befitting that he is also remembered among our city’s other great mayors and civic leaders.

“Just as Mayor Hartsfield knew and believed, so did Mayor Jackson; and that is, Atlanta’s future as a leader in the southeast depends on the success and growth of our airport,” Moore added.

Today as the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson is planning to create an airport complete with a large-scale on-property hotel attached to the domestic terminal. A travel plaza and office space is also part of that plan.

In addition, the city council also approved two bills, by votes of 14-0, related to deposition and future use of old Atlanta Public Schools properties. The legislative items included:

An ordinance, authored by Councilmember Joyce Sheperd, which authorizes the mayor to negotiate an agreement with Atlanta Public Schools (APS) for the disposition of the Adair School property, located at 711 Catherine Street, S.W.

A resolution, authored by City Councilmember Michael Julian Bond, which authorizes the mayor to evaluate all former APS properties to determine the feasibility of repurposing those properties for possible use as parks and greenspace.

Councilmember Bond cites a February 2008 report: “State of Atlanta’s Greenspace,” prepared by Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC, which found that Atlanta’s existing park system has many issues – including a relatively low amount of parkland in relation to the city’s population and land area compared to other major U.S. cities.

That report cited Buckhead’s Council District 7 as having the least amount of park space per capita of any of the city’s 12 council districts.